You don’t have to look very far these days and you will see it.  A complete and total lack of those who are willing to serve for no self gain what-so-ever. 

Don’t get me wrong, some completely selfless acts do still exist, but is it as common as it once was?

Leads me to ask the question, "Whatever happened to……Civil Service?"

You know what I mean, public officials serving for the simple act of serving.  Not for political gain, or to pad their  pockets with lobbyist monies.  I think that the farther we move away from the "Boomer" generation the worse it seems to get.  I can’t help but look back at those in service in the latter days of World War II and see how not only our voted officials operated, but how there was much more a sense of caring for those around you.

In my opinion ,the more patriotic the country is, the more you see people doing for others and the more you see bi-partisan politics happening.  Now that being said, and no disrespect to the families and victims of 9/11, but we have not seen a real outpouring of patriotism since the second plane hit tower two on that fateful and horrific day.  In the days that followed, when people didn’t know whether to bend over and kiss it goodbye or hold on to each other, most chose the latter.  Remember seeing our politicians leave the Capital building and sing together on the steps. Why didn’t we get anything going then?  We were all getting along like a group of three-year-olds in a sandbox.  Why didn’t we roll up our sleeves, scrap the political parties and work together for a "more perfect union?"  Why not? 

Am I calling for a tragedy to befall the country in order to generate patriotism?  By all means no!

What I am doing is pointing out an observation.  Back before I was born, during JFK’s Inaugural address, he made a statement that will forever live on, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country?"  What the heck happened to that?  Was that just a statement aimed at Mr. and Mrs. John Q Public, or was this statement meant for all of us that live under the Constitution of the USA.  I have to say that we have (and if I am the only one who sees this, we are screwed) managed to carve a very poor sect of life in our country.  Gone, it would seem, are the days when those that we placed in public office served as our voice.  Is the country really being run "by the people, for the people" or is it just everyman in office for themselves? 

Do you even stop to think about it anymore or just turn a deaf ear thinking that, what is done is done and there is nothing that can be done to fix it?  Remember quite possibly the greatest tool we, the average Joes, have is our ability to cast a ballot.  For our voices to be heard and to send a person to office who has our, yours and my, best interest in mind and report back to us what is really happening and what they are doing about.  Oh and by the way, find out if it is really what we want.  Did we completely lose that part of it?  When is the last time that you were contacted to get your opinion on any leader’s approval rating?  I for one have never been contacted.  At what point does one transcend from being a citizen to being a super-citizen who no longer requires accountability?

Now I don’t want to get preachy here but…….

We all know full well that politicians, in most cases, have very good intentions when they begin to run.  I believe that Obama really thought he could go and make "change" happen.  The problem is that once he got there he ran into the same old crap that has been going on for years.  The frozen chosen that have been in office way too long and have gotten comfortable in their lifestyle, that have lost sight of what America and Americans are really all about.  I am not about to try and wrap my brain around why this continues to happen.  I am also not fool enough to not know that absolute power corrupts absolutely.  I guess my question is, "Why is it that we limit the President, the "highest office in the land" to 8 years of service and yet we allow of State and Federal Representatives to fossilize in office?  Doesn’t it seem right that at some point you give someone else a shot to see if they can maybe right the ship or at least get it out of dry dock?  I say this, you get 10 years to make a difference, if in that time the people you represent can say you have done a great job, (and I mean normal people) then you get 4 years to train up the next batch. 

We the people deserve better and more than what is going on in our country, states, and cities currently.  Like the old saying goes, lead, follow or get out of the way.  Stop getting rich in office and start putting the plans of the people back into play.  We put you there and we can take you out.  It is time to stop believing you are anointed and realize that all you were was appointed to a job and it is a temp job at that.

About the author:  Ernie Osborn is just a regular joe that sees life around him a little differently.  He is a former youth leader that believes that life should be lived to the fullest.  His views and opinions may or may not reflect those of Tulsa Today.  Ernie serves as Concert Editor for Tulsa Today.  (In other words, if his writing strikes you and makes you think great, or if it just makes you laugh and scratch your head that is fine too)

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft has captured the first flash of sunlight reflected off a lake on Saturn’s moon Titan, confirming the presence of liquid on the part of the moon dotted with many large, lake-shaped basins.

Cassini scientists had been looking for the glint, also known as a specular reflection, since the spacecraft began orbiting Saturn in 2004. But Saturn’s northern hemisphere, which has more lakes than the southern hemisphere, has been veiled in winter darkness. The sun only began to directly illuminate the northern lakes recently as it approached the equinox of August 2008, the start of spring in the northern hemisphere. Titan’s hazy atmosphere also blocked out reflections of sunlight in most wavelengths. This serendipitous image was captured on July 8, 2009, using Cassini’s visual and infrared mapping spectrometer.

The new infrared image is available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini.

“This one image communicates so much about Titan — thick atmosphere, surface lakes and an otherworldliness,” said Bob Pappalardo, Cassini project scientist, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.  “It’s an unsettling combination of strangeness yet similarity to Earth. This picture is one of Cassini’s iconic images.”

Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, has captivated scientists because of its many similarities to Earth. Scientists have theorized for 20 years that Titan’s cold surface hosts seas or lakes of liquid hydrocarbons, making it the only other planetary body besides Earth believed to harbor liquid on its surface. While data from Cassini have not indicated any vast seas, they have revealed large lakes near Titan’s north and south poles.

In 2008, Cassini scientists using infrared data confirmed the presence of liquid in Ontario Lacus, the largest lake in Titan’s southern hemisphere. But they were still looking for the smoking gun to confirm liquid in the northern hemisphere, where lakes are also larger.

Katrin Stephan, of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Berlin, an associate member of the Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team, was processing the initial image and was the first to see the glint on July 10th.

“I was instantly excited because the glint reminded me of an image of our own planet taken from orbit around Earth, showing a reflection of sunlight on an ocean,” Stephan said. “But we also had to do more work to make sure the glint we were seeing wasn’t lightning or an erupting volcano.”

Team members at the University of Arizona, Tucson, processed the image further, and scientists were able to compare the new image to radar and near-infrared-light images acquired from 2006 to 2008.

They were able to correlate the reflection to the southern shoreline of a lake called Kraken Mare. The sprawling Kraken Mare covers about 400,000 square kilometers (150,000 square miles), an area larger than the Caspian Sea, the largest lake on Earth. It is located around 71 degrees north latitude and 337 degrees west latitude.

The finding shows that the shoreline of Kraken Mare has been stable over the last three years and that Titan has an ongoing hydrological cycle that brings liquids to the surface, said Ralf Jaumann, a visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team member who leads the scientists at the DLR who work on Cassini. Of course, in this case, the liquid in the hydrological cycle is methane rather than water, as it is on Earth.

 “These results remind us how unique Titan is in the solar system,” Jaumann said. “But they also show us that liquid has a universal power to shape geological surfaces in the same way, no matter what the liquid is.”